What are they when they grow up? Do they remain autistic? Do they ‘grow out of it’?
I have never heard anything about autisitic adults.
Well, “Rain Man” was based on a real person, I believe. There is also a woman who was written about by Oliver Sacks in “An Anthropologist on Mars.” I can’t recall her name, but maybe someone else can.
She is a professor at an agricultural college who made her reputation designing humane restraints for farm animals.
I believe you’re thinking of Temple Grandin, who wrote the autobiography “Thinking in Pictures” about her life as a “high-functioning” autistic. I won’t try to summarize in detail, but it’s a fascinating insight.
They don’t really grow out of it, although some with milder cases learn to adapt to some degree.
More severe cases often wind up in some job that doesn’t require dealing with the public or much interaction with fellow workers. Really severe cases may spend their lives in group homes or some other supervised setting.
There is training that most handicapped chilldren go through in there high school years. They teach them things from counting money, to preparing nutritious meals. If the child is trainable (less severe) they can go from doing jos that are like filing, to jobs like bag boys. A lot of handicapped children end up being the responsibility of the siblings as the parents grow older. Those who don’t have that advantage go to group homes and institutions.
Autism is one of those syndromes that complicate the training process. You usually aren’t dealing with children who are retarded, just socially inept. Finding employment and living conditions that they thrive in is the ideal situation.
It’s my understanding that autism is distinctly different than typical types of mental handicaps such as Down’s syndrome because communication is so difficult. Some close friends have an autistic child that is nearly six now. He has to be treated as a toddler in some ways but in others as a child that is physically and mentally capable of getting into a lot of trouble. They were forced to replace the front door knob with a key only deadbolt becasue he got out of the house a few days ago and wandered into a busy 6 lane street during afternoon rush hour. I don’t know if communication with him will ever improve. His mother can get through to him most of the time but it’s a rare event when I’m able to get his attention.
Just to reiterate, autism is essentially a permanent condition and won’t ‘go away’, though societal behavior can be learned to some extent, as mentioned. My sister worked in a group home for adults (mostly autistic) and did respite care for autistic children as well. Mostly she did not have to perform too many tasks for them, just provide a sense of security and direct them when making meals.
Although I’m not an expert, my understanding of autism from her is this: It’s thought that autistic people are in a near-constant state of sensory overload. Either they are experiencing everything in far more detail than we do (lack of filtering), or their brains do not process sensory information nearly as well so that they feel the same thing but do not comprehend it easily. The difficulty is then primarily communication and interaction. Since some may react better with other senses, sign language or other means often help in attempts to communicate.
James Vipond is an adult, high-functioning autistic. This is his website:
It is very strange.
–John
Autism is a spectrum of disorders so the outcomes depend on what part of the spectrum the child falls on.
70% of autistic children have some form of intellectual handicap but there are also some children with autism who are profoundly gifted with IQs over 160.
Many adults with autism need support in their daily lives - I have 2 kids dx’ed on the spectrum. One kid I think the psych was talking out his butt when he made the dx but the other kid I can accept it. What I think will happen for my kids with early intervention, is that they will be geeky adults ;). The child whose dx I accept has a dx of High Functioning Autism - it will probably be upgraded to Aspergers in years to come.
However my kids don’t have any intellectual impairment at all.
Temple Grandin has a webpage BTW. Her books are fascinating as an insight into the world of a HF autistic person.